I am especially gratified by the honor offered to me by the

University of Geneva—an institution of great age, prestige

and commitment to humanities, social sciences along with its

universal recognition in pure sciences.

Even more pleased am I by the topic I was encouraged to

address: human rights and women's rights. And it is

interesting, if troubling that human rights is still not naturally

and automatically understood to include women. It's as

though there are humans and then there are women—a

supplement to, if not separate from, real human beings.

But I do understand the need if not to separate at least to

dramatize the necessity of reminding ourselves how hard it

has been, historically, for women to enter the terrain of

human rights; how difficult it has been garnering attention to

the routine repression of our gender as well as our erasure

from the concept of human rights.

This erasure has exacerbated a number of problems in the

discourse on women's rights. And I have gathered a few

examples:

1. Emphasis on equity as an end in itself rather than its

moral and ethical obligations. The struggle, the

poisonous controversy in 19th Century America was

whether to include black men in the press toward

universal voting rights or to expand that right only to

white women. As provocative as that battle was, for me

the signal erasure was the elimination from discussion

those who occupied both camps of race and gender—

black women.

2. Years ago I gave a commencement address which I

titled "Cinderella's Sisters" in order to draw attention to

the glorification of the harm women do to each other.

Cinderella is a fairy tale about a household of women

gathered together and held together in order to abuse

another woman. The theme of my lecture was to

discourage women from the oppression of other women

and to call attention to the violence women do to each

other, to remind the audience of that Women's College

that mothers who abuse children are women and

another woman has to stay her hand, that women who

beat and enslave their domestic help are women and

another woman must stay her hand, that mothers who

sell, abandon or slaughter their children are women and

other women have to stay her hand. What I hoped to

convey was that women's rights are not merely an

abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not

only about the collective "us"; it is also about you and

me. Just the two of us.

3. In the US there has surfaced a general condemnation

Affirmative Action laws—laws designed to end

discrimination in the work place, at educational

institutions etc. Because 'racial discrimination' in the

United States is so prevalent, so central, the public has

come to see these laws as purely and solely about

race. But the largest group of beneficiaries under this

law are white women, women who seem reluctant to

counter the vicious and prevalent notion of so-called

"reverse racism" or to raise their voices for vigorous

support of these laws, in spite of the fact that feminists

movements in the United Stated have always followed

black freedom movements. It was so in the 19th century

following the Civil War against slavery; it was so in the

1960's following the Civil Rights movement for voting

rights, jobs and the elimination of segregation.

4. The discourse surrounding sexual assault is another

area in which the language of women's rights is

becoming twisted. Violence against women is

understood primarily as sexual assault or domestic

violence. But viewing such assault through only the

victim's eyes is vital but also limiting. Where is the

scholarship, the analysis on men who rape? Are they

simply the mindless Grendels born to monstrosity when

given a chance? Or are they our husbands, sons,

brothers, fathers? Something is missing. Why does

rape, this most flesh bound attack, remain so focused

on the victim? Where is the analysis of the masculinist

coupling in these abuses? I would like to see an

examination of homoeroticism in gang rape, which has

nothing to do with homosexual males but everything to

do with the eroticism of heterosexual men. Sharing,

watching increases and distributes the joy. The

legitimate focus on female victims must not erase or

diminish the aggressor.

5. Fortunately, and most gratifying there are powerful

signs of change—signs that assume women's rights are

indeed human rights. The lashing of women for walking

alone in public, having a cell phone and other equally

childish prohibitions has outraged men and women in

the Middle East and elsewhere. The crowds demanding

to be heard, demanding accountability, responsibility

from the corrosive marriage of money and politics;

insisting on value instead of costs—these crowds that

are springing up everywhere assume the equity of

females in the battle.

En quête de cours anglais en ligne ?

6. The most gratifying sign of the seamless merger of

women into the human race are the three women who

have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their

work not for women, but for humans: the environment,

the cessation of war, the democratization of a nation.

All of which suggests that the supplement term

'women's rights' may finally be redundant.

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Aucune information ? Sérieusement ?Ok, nous tacherons de faire mieux pour le prochainLa moyenne, ouf ! Pas mieux ?Merci. Posez vos questions dans les commentaires.Un plaisir de vous aider ! :) 5,00 (1 note(s))
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Agathe

Professeur de langues dans le secondaire, je partage avec vous mes cours de linguistique !